The New Craze
by Maige
Summary: Loneliness makes one do crazy things - when supernatural comes into play, it becomes dangerous. Implied hetero MapleTea.


Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia

As some people may have noticed from my author notes in Shag Tag, I have been in a wonderfully sour, wonderfully un-pleasant mood the last week or so. Because of this I'm not going to work on Shag Tag, because if I do, I'm bound to kill someone off and ruin everything, and since I don't give a flying frack about continuing with the before mentioned fanfiction at the moment...let us bring some horror into this.

I've been reading some wonderful, wooooooonderful Lovecraft, so let's bring some some Snapped!Canako all into this bizshit!

Warnings: Heterosexual couple, MapleTea as main heterosexual couple, implied sexual tones, etc, done in third-person

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><p>The year was drawing into the halfway mark. 2012 was drawing near, so bloody near so bloody fast, and I had enough on my hands, too much to have more pushed on my shoulders. You must understand Alfred, at first I couldn't have the worries of other nations placed into my own palms, especially nations that were oh so easily forgotten, nations that withdrawled into the darkness of the veiled background on any common day.<p>

But Madeline was different - she was always different.

And I was concerned - how couldn't I be? I understand that many people believe I know nothing of her existence, but by God that is not true! I always acknowledged the lass, ever since she was younger and I first retrieved her from that damned frog...the thing was...I simply never bothered with her.

Oh, quit giving me that flabbergasted expression, you git. You knew this as well as I did.

That is, until a few months ago. You were sick then, remember? During an average G8 meeting (though they weren't average. All of the most recent meetings, we were accompanied by our bosses. Many were not happy about it, claiming that this was the job for the personifications of their nations, but I am deftly proud to say that Cameron was a good sport about it), Madeline had burst into crocodile years, right in the middle of Ludwig's speech.

To say the least, everyone present were quite baffled, though Madeline's boss just looked rather embarrassed. Unfortunately, her crying started a mini chain reaction, and Feliciano soon followed suit. The meeting was paused and Canada was escorted out of the room by a painstakingly concerned Francis. For once, he wasn't trying to sneak a lustful grope to her chest.

I felt utterly awful for the poor girl, and visited her later on, questioning on if something was the matter.

Madeline's response was a surprise quirk of the eyebrows, and, startlingly enough, a twist of the lips, forming her mouth into a terribly sardonic smile.

She then asked why I, of all people, would be worried about her wellfare, that smile widening through her words. And God help me, that smile, to twistingly mocking and teasing in its form, chilled me to the bone.

Pick your jaw up from the table, prat. If you're going to continue to get overwhelmed by every little thing I say, I might as well stop talking now.

You understand? Good. Now, if you will allow me to continue...

Anyways, I told Madeline that there was no reason for me not to be concerned, and even though we do not talk too often, she was still considered as a dear daughter to me.

And oh, how that awful smile widened and widened, it kept growing until I was fearful that her whole head was going to just split in half. It was then, Alfred, that I took notice of how ghastly Madeline's appearance was. Her blonde hair, usually curled in small wispy ringlets, was sticking up in a million places, a right bedhead hairdo. Her violet eyes were bloodshot at the corners, the sign of someone working on three hours of sleep. And the circles under her eyes, the raccoon tattoos, so dark they were practically bruises.

But it wasn't just around her eyes - it was in her eyes, in those soulful depths of amethyst that scared me all the more.

I am hesitant to say that she looked like she had toys in the attic -

Hmph. _Insane, _you wanker. You really do need to freshen up your vocabulary. Now will you grant the kindness of allowing me to continue, without any interuptions?

Alright. Thank you.

Anyways, as I was saying, I don't believed she looked exactly _insane _at the moment. And that's what frightened me.

Madeline was quite in her right mind, but at the same time she was as mad as a hatter.

How is that possible? I have no idea, frankly. I keep to my statement all the same.

Finally, Maddie -

_Will you shut up? _I can call her as a please, _so let me bloody go on with my story!_

Right, as I was saying; after a while Maddie dropped her smile and looked at me wearily, apologizing for acting so cold towards me and explaining that she was only tired. Understatement of the year, I must say.

I assured Maddie that she had absolutely nothing to apologize about and went on my way, troubled.

I have lived a long, long life Alfred, and never before had I seen someone so wretched, never in a war, never when the infamous Jack the Ripper was roaming my streets...to be honest my boy, your younger sister looked like death while I was talking to her.

No, I'm not exaggerating in the bit.

Considering I was still troubled, and that little meeting didn't help sooth my worries in the least, I went back to Madeline a few days later to ask her if she was feeling any better.

She didn't look any better, but Madeline invited me into her home anyways and offered me a spot of tea, which I agreed to. I needed something anyways - my throat felt like sandpaper upon entering her house. It was so dark, every last curtain drawn.

As I sat at her quaint kitchen table, the first thought that entered my head was '_Where is that fat little bear she usually heaves around?'_, for said bear was nowhere in sight, and as you know, Madeline almost always has her in a three-feet radius. But not today.

I had thought of asking, but didn't, and soon Madeline set a cup of tea (the porcelain material was cracked, I should add) and sat across from me.

"And what do I owe this visit?" she had said, her tone pleasant enough.

"I wanted to see how you were doing, love," I responded, bringing my cup up to my lips. My hands had an awful shake to them, and small droplets of the liquid spilled out from over the rim and onto the checkered table cloth. Maddie paid no heed.

"I'm doing much better, thank you," Maddie replied. She tried to form a smile, but failed.

Now, Alfred...this part...When I was planning on telling you all this, I was thinking of delaying this part, perhaps pulling it out of the tale all together but...I need to tell you everything. No matter how...well, let us move forward. Get it out and it won't come back to haunt you, right?

What happened was Madeline finally managed to pull off a gentle smile, nothing like the one she granted me days earlier. It was...gorgeous. Absolutely stunning, and my old ticker skipped a beat. A handful of beats, actually. I was suddenly feeling extremely, well, to say the least, hot under the collar, as the younger folks say today.

Don't say it like _that! _You're making me sound worse than that blasted Francis! Yes, I was finding myself suddenly and abruptly attracted to the little Canadian, though I had no idea why, but I wasn't going to jump her then and there.

To make matter's worse, Madeline's smile became a teasing one, though still not a mocking one, as if she knew the prompt effect she was having on my person.

I had to change the subject, and quickly, so I said, "Are you positively sure? Many people are worried about you, and we'd all love to see you get better. But first you have to come up and tell us what is wrong."

She went silent then, her face darkening somewhat, in a manner that caused alarm to blossom within my stomach. I dare say, she almost looked like Russia at that moment.

But then she brightened once more, said that she was just feeling a bit down, and that I need not worry, for she was befriending old friends to cheer her up.

Naturally, I asked who these 'old friends' were.

Oh Alfred. How I wished I hadn't asked that. How I would do anything to take it back.

Madeline immediately told me that she would introduce me to her friends.

I played along, sure that these 'old friends' were probably older folks she knew for a long while. Or, perhaps, animals of her land. She was always quite the spiritual one, Maddie was, even as she progressed into the modern age.

We agreed that after our tea we would go out, and the moment the last drop was gone from my cup we left. Madeline still didn't get her polar bear from wherever the little fluff ball had been hiding.

So we went, out through the streets until we made it to the edge of a forest. Obviously, I made the hasty assumption that my earlier thoughts about the animals was right.

Madeline took my hand then, the action causing another unwanted pang of want to scrawl throughout my being, and we went on to find our way through the maze of neverending trees. It could have been the atmosphere, but I swear to God that the trees, so tall, seemed alive that day, like the trees within the binds of Tolkien's writing.

After a while of walking through the blanket of pine needles and insects, Maddie removed her hand from mine and glanced coyly towards me, looking like a school girl that had naughty crush on her teacher.

"What are you doing?" I asked in a voice that didn't sound like my own, as she took a few steps away from me.

Her eyes flashed, and she had murmured something intelligible. Madeline then ran, but not before offering me another glance, this one full of challenging notions and whispered promises.

For some reason I ran after her, feeling like a young, randy schoolboy darting after his first serious crush, and oh Lord how embarrassing it is to admit this -

Well, yes, I see your point. Anyways, I chased Madeline through the forest, becoming more needy with every moment that passed, until my legs were wobbly and I couldn't run no more. I called for Maddie, yelling that this wasn't funny anymore, and she came up behind me like a ghost, wrapping her slender arms around my neck, her body pressed against mine causing myself to go nearly mad...

Yes, I would have probably taken the girl right there in the forest, the girl I had raised from a tiny little colony, but I had no chance to.

There was a nearby crash, the sound of a tree falling over. I paused, my needs wilting almost immediately as they were replaced by fright. I had looked over at Madeline. She was unfazed, happy even. The next sentence she uttered will stay for me until the world ends. It might even stay with me into the after light.

"There's one of them. One of my friends. He's here to meet you, Arthur."

And meet him I did, whatever he was.

A creature came out from between the bushes that were to our right.

Now, as most nations now, I am used to things of the supernatural. I enjoy dabbling in white magick, and have befriended many mythical creatures, faeries, unicorns, dwarfes, all the like.

But this...this was no faerie.

It stood tall, no less than eight feet; but it was hunched, so it was perhaps more like ten feet, if the thing were to stand straight. The creature was covered from head to toe with gangly, filth and blood-caked brown fur, the stank coming off from it almost unbearable. It had an almost anthropomorphic form and stood erect on its twisted legs, but its head was in the shape of a moose. Antlers sprouted from the top of its skull.

The eyes were dead, and the skin was pulled over the bones in such a thin layer, one would suspect that such a beast could never manage to live for long.

And then it opened its mouth, revealing blood-stained fangs, and screamed.

It screamed and screamed, the screams of the starved and the damned and the orphaned and that was everything wrong with the wretched world - -

Oh. Thank you Alfred - I really needed something to calm my nerves. And there's nothing like tea to calm one's nerves, am I right?

No, Alfred. I need to continue now, or I never will and it will haunt me for every sleep I go through for the rest of my life.

The beast's scream eventually did cut off. Madeline spoke up again after it stopped.

"He has many names, but one of them is the Wendigo," she had said, gesturing to the abomination standing before us. It stared at the two of us with the stupid, watery eyes of a cow. But there was intelligence behind that stupidity. "You see Arthur, I was lonely. Everyone knows that I'm lonely, but do they care? Of course not.

So...I turned to my land for company. And here came my old friends, my friends from the days before you or Francis came and destroyed my people. Wendigo here was the best of them all - he also hurt my people, but never mercilessly wiped them out, such as you did."

I tried to say something, but I couldn't. What could I say?

"They loved me," she was still going on. "More than anyone else. More than Francis; he may have loved me, but that didn't stop him from dumping me on your doorstep, did it?"

"Madeline," I had said, finally finding my voice. "What is it - "

"And they'll all help me," Maddie interrupted me, her voice dead. "Help me to get back at those who did me wrong. The Qullupilluit's will steal children. The Thunderbird will bring terror to the skies. And Wendigo will turn the world into a pit of slathering, drooling cannibals." She then turned to me, and she was no longer beautiful. "Arthur. I will let you get a head start. I won't do it yet, but if you don't leave now, the Great British Empire will be the first to fall."

Needless to say, I didn't need to hear anymore. I ran. Ran for my life, with the screams of the Wendigo ringing over and over in my ears.

You see Alfred... loneliness does the most terrible thing to people. Just look at Russia. I know you don't like him, but I believe most of the insanity running through his mind is from never having one true friend. Same with many of the other nations who are seen as monsters.

But, this was months ago. I haven't heard from Madeline since that day...have you? No, of course you haven't.

For all we know, she might have retreated back to what's left of her wilderness, probably up North, and became a native again.

Should we be worried? Well, I'm not sure, lad. Like I said, it was months ago, and so far the batshit lunacy that's been going in has been the normal kind of batshit lunacy, and so far there hasn't been any word of nations turning into man eaters, so -

Alfred...? Why are you eyeing me like that...?

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><p>Come to me, my one review.<p>

Or zero. I'm really not going to hold my breath with this one. :/


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